This project involves political scientists, economists, and medical researchers to address the question of whether hunger, poverty, disease and agricultural resource constraints foster civil conflict and international terrorism. Economists have elucidated the links between agricultural stagnation, poverty, and food insecurity, and political scientists have empirically analyzed the role of poverty in facilitating civil conflict. To date there has been virtually no work bringing the two perspectives together, nor in exploring their connection to infectious disease and dwindling environmental resources. This project seeks to establish the empirical and policy linkages between the approaches, with the goals of reducing poverty, disease, and violent conflict.
Completed seminars exploring such "deadly connections" include: